The California Town That Still Lives Beneath Lake Berryessa

For nearly 70 years, the remains of Monticello have rested beneath Lake Berryessa, where roads, foundations and a historic stone bridge can still be seen beneath the water. During droughts and periods of low lake levels, fragments of the California town occasionally emerge.

Monticello grew along Putah Creek in Napa County during the 19th century. About 300 people lived there, farming, raising cattle and building a close rural community of ranches, farms, schools and family homes. The valley also hosted businesses, community facilities and a popular rodeo associated with the Scribner family.

That life changed in the late 1940s, when plans advanced for Monticello Dam and the reservoir that would become Lake Berryessa. The government bought the land and evicted the residents. By 1956, buildings were being destroyed or burned so they would not pose hazards when the valley flooded. The dam was completed in February 1957 at a reported cost of $47 million, and the rising reservoir covered much of the valley to provide a major water source for Solano County.

The valley’s fertile soil supported cattle, wheat and other agriculture. A stone bridge built across Putah Creek in 1896 connected parts of the community, while the road crossing the southern end of the valley later became Highway 28 and then Highway 128. The submerged bridge now attracts scuba divers exploring the underwater landscape.

Dorothea Lange and Pirkle Jones spent a year photographing Monticello and the Berryessa Valley for Life magazine as residents prepared to leave. Their images recorded houses, farms, families and landscapes facing disappearance. The work became known as “Death of a Valley.” Life did not publish the full project, but excerpts appeared in Aperture in 1960, preserving a visual record of the town above the reservoir.